Prominent London Legal Firms and Their Twitter Accounts

Prominent London Legal Firms and Their Twitter

Accounts

Written by Rachel Murray of

Online Ventures Group, an Inbound Marketing Agency onlineventuresgroup.co.uk

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� of �2 63Prominent London Legal Firms and Their Twitter Accounts

http://onlineventuresgroup.co.uk


The Role of Social Me-dia in the Legal Sec-tor !!In the fast-paced and fiercely competi-tive world in which legal firms operate, it’s easy for Twitter to seem like an af-terthought. !Whether your expertise lies in real es-tate, litigation, or intellectual property; there is often very little time and man-power available to dedicate specifically to implementing an effective social me-dia strategy. This is a challenge that all legal firms must face - and yet many are overcoming this problem with remark-able efficiency. !Twitter, for example, has the intrinsic ability to elevate legal firms and rein-force their business strategy. When done well, a great Twitter account has the ca-pacity to generate leads, entice prospects, recruit employees, increase brand awareness, promote corporate news, and develop client relationships. And all with one click of a button.

!There’s no doubt that London legal firms are paving the way for other busi-nesses across the world in terms of their social media strategy. Many of the firms in this report have demonstrated enor-mous skill and dedication to creating great social content. Others, however, are still struggling to compete with their contemporaries and maximise their business potential on Twitter. !This report will examine 20 of the most popular and interesting Twitter accounts of the London legal sector. There will be an in-depth summary of individual firm strengths, weaknesses, and potential ar-eas of improvement. !Whether your firm is already convinced about the merits of Twitter, or is yet to be swayed, this report will aim to demonstrate how legal firms can benefit from implementing an effective social media campaign. !!!!!!!!!

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!� of �3 63Prominent London Legal Firms and Their Twitter Accounts



Slaughter and May@slaughterandmay !Few can deny that Slaughter and May are one of the most established and revered legal firms in London. Founded in 1889, Slaughter and May have demonstrated their success by opening multiple offices in Hong Kong, Brus-sels, and Beijing. !Unlike other London-based legal firms, Slaughter and May have distinguished themselves with their seemingly unwa-vering domestic focus. They are also no-table for their conservative outlook. !Throughout their existence, Slaughter and May have maintained a traditional partnership and preferred to develop their own lawyers rather than recruiting externally. Unfortunately, this conservative outlook has managed to seep into their social media campaign. While Slaughter and May have a strong presence on Twitter, their outreach is limited by their ‘pro-tected’ account. Furthermore, they don’t have a company account on LinkedIn. This means that prospective clients and leads are strongly prohibited from learn-ing more about Slaughter and May. !In a digital age where brand awareness and customer acquisition is paramount -

Slaughter and May are not reaching their social media potential. !Why has Slaughter and May made their account private? !��On the one hand, the limited access of their Twitter account means that Slaugh-ter and May retain their reputation for exclusivity. They have complete control over their audience and enjoy virtual privacy while communicating with oth-ers. !However, this then begs the following question: can a business sustain social media without being social? !Exclusivity Exclusivity and privacy limit Slaughter and May’s outreach capacity. One of the key goals of social media is to increase brand awareness and generate client in-terest in your business. With a closed Twitter account, Slaughter and May fail to do this on a popular and widespread level. !To make matters worse, they also don’t have a comprehensive LinkedIn ac-count. There is a somewhat informative LinkedIn page about Slaughter and May - but there is no actual company ac-count. !This is surprising, especially consider-ing that over 5,800 users ‘follow’ the page. There are no updates, no an-




nouncements, and no information detail-ing Slaughter and May’s recent success-es. !It’s not the case that there’s no demand for Slaughter and May’s social media presence (5,800 people would agree) - but there simply isn’t a consistent effort to do so. !Internal promotion Given that Slaughter and May produce their own regular news items, it’s unfor-tunate that they don’t have a public plat-form from which to promote their work. !In the world of digital marketing, it would be wrong to assume that content will automatically promote itself based on a company’s prestige. !Like all forms of content marketing, it’s paramount to have an accompanying so-cial media campaign. Only by doing so can you ensure that your content will be widely seen. !What can Slaughter and May do to improve their social media presence? !Be more open As one of the most prestigious legal firms in London, it’s of paramount im-portance than Slaughter and May devel-op a comprehensive and consistent so-cial media strategy. !It would be wrong to think that Twitter should be used primarily as an exclusive and private tool for businesses in the le-

gal sector. When used properly, social media has the capacity to generate leads and develop customer relationships. This is hugely important for any legal firm - especially in London, where com-petition in the sector is particularly fierce. !Use social media to build on client rela-tionships For Slaughter and May, it’s vital that so-cial media is used in a constructive and positive way. An open Twitter account would allow the firm to promote their news updates to a far greater client net-work. It would also be a useful way to build relationships with Slaughter and May’s international client base. !In addition to this, Slaughter and May would benefit from using social media on a more consistent level. If you want to develop meaningful relationships with your clients, then it can be very beneficial to use social media to develop a consumer following. Regular, useful tweets are invaluable way of achieving this. !Unlike other firms in this report, Slaugh-ter and May do not have a Twitter ac-count specifically for graduates. This is disappointing, especially considering how revered the firm is amongst stu-dents. !Slaughter and May are the only firm in this report who have privatised their Twitter account.




Allen and Overy @AllenOvery !Allen and Overy are one of the most important and influential legal firms in the city of London. They have been op-erating for over 83 years and are truly international, with 43 offices worldwide - including in Casablanca and Istanbul. !In terms of social media, Allen and Overy have excelled in establishing for themselves a strong and multifaceted Twitter campaign. Unlike other legal firms in London, Allen and Overy actu-ally have multiple Twitter accounts ded-icated to different client needs. This in-cludes an account for graduates (@Al-lenOveryGrads), prospective employees (@AllenOveryJobs), and eco fundrais-ers (@AllenOveryCSR). !Unlike Slaughter and May, Allen and Overy have a public Twitter account which promotes their content for every-one to see. There are several good as-pects about Allen and Overy’s Twitter campaign, but there is also room for im-provement.

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With 16.4k followers, Allen and Overy’s Twitter is surprisingly large - something which we’ll examine later in this report. !What do Allen and Overy do well? !There are a variety of components which make the Allen and Overy Twitter campaign particularly effective. !Quality Content Allen and Overy succeeds in using its Twitter account in a meaningful and valuable way. Most of their content in-cludes a mixture of news updates and article shares. As you would expect, these tweets have been created with a specific legal audience in mind. !Allen and Overy are very good at using Twitter to promote their own news up-dates. The law firm have their own dedi-cated ‘publication’ section on their web-site which is predominantly used to dis-cuss legal news and corporate matters in an in-depth and meaningful way. !

�� !It’s refreshing to see that Allen and Overy use their social media presence to actively advertise their publications - rather than relying on their prestige to promote the material in the first place. This would be a good lesson for many London-based legal firms, especially those who wish to generate more leads.




!For those who work in the legal sector, the Allen and Overy account is a very useful tool for keeping up to date with the latest legal news in the world. For this reason, the Allen and Overy Twitter account would be a good example of a law firm providing their followers with valuable content. !Nevertheless, there is certainly room for improvement. If you visit the Allen and Overy page, the first that thing strikes a user is that there’s no images. Every-thing is very text-heavy and the Twitter account isn’t immediately eye-catching. !Consistency Consistency is one of the most impor-tant characteristics of any Twitter ac-count. Allen and Overy are good at up-dating their tweets - usually every day - but this has slowed down in recent weeks. At the current rate, Allen and Overy are sending out tweets at least once a week. This is far from ideal, es-pecially if Allen and Overy want to in-crease public awareness concerning their news updates. !Nevertheless, this law firm should be commended for its brand consistency on Twitter. It doesn’t take very long to gain a clear understanding of who Allen and Overy are, where their interests lie, and which type of audiences they’re target-ing. Their tweets are somewhat regi-mented and their followers will quickly learn what to expect from the Allen and Overy Twitter account.

!Consumer segmentation One of the other reasons for Allen and Overy’s social media success is their separate, audience-driven Twitter ac-counts. !There are five Allen and Overy accounts dedicated to different purposes and dif-ferent online users. This might seem too much, but there is a lot of merit in ap-proaching social media in this structured and audience-driven way. !Allen and Overy have recognised that their online users follow them for a va-riety of purposes and (crucially) for dif-ferent lengths of time. Their graduate account, for example, is primarily tar-geted at students (undergraduate and postgraduate) who are interested in learning more about the firm. This Twit-ter account is much more engaging, with plenty of photographs and a more per-sonal business-consumer relationship dynamic. !However, the Allen and Overy graduate account provides the firm with a fantas-tic opportunity for recruitment. For ex-ample, it doesn’t take long to notice that Allen and Overy are creating close-working relationships with prospective employees from King’s College Lon-don. This gives Allen and Overy a fan-tastic opportunity to cultivate their fu-ture interests and promote their compa-ny as the number one location for future graduates. !




In this sense, Allen and Overy are very good at exploiting social media for its commercial and corporate potential. !Their ‘corporate responsibility’ Twitter account is as equally interesting. In con-junction with their wider business strat-egy, Allen and Overy have a clear set of corporate, moral, and ethical duties that they abide with. This includes raising awareness about important issues, but also taking part in various charity events and mentoring underprivileged young people in developing countries. All of these efforts are very admirable - but so is their dedicated Twitter account. !The Allen and Overy CSR Twitter ac-count is used primarily to promote these efforts, whilst simultaneously increasing their brand awareness. At this moment in time, for example, Allen and Overy are currently taking part in the Legal Walk to raise money for several differ-ent charities. Their dedicated Twitter ac-count is filled with advertisements for this event; encouraging their staff and stakeholders to take part in the walk. !This is a great example of purpose-dri-ven social media by Allen and Overy. Unlike other accounts created by the firm, the CSR Twitter account is much more personal and consumer-orientated. Through the necessity to raise money for important causes, Allen and Overy have created a Twitter account which is much more engaging on an emotional level. !

How can this be replicated? If other legal firms wish to replicate this success, then there are plenty of lessons to be taken from Allen and Overy. The decision to make audience-driven, sepa-rate Twitter accounts for different pur-poses is extremely effective. It’s more user-friendly and helps to reinforce Allen and Overy’s unique brand identity. !As like any good Twitter account, Allen and Overy are efficient at creating and regularly distributing quality social con-tent. This could be done better, especial-ly in the case of their primary account, but overall Allen and Overy are doing well. !How can Allen and Overy improve? !Use Twitter regularly In addition to updating their main ac-count more regularly, Allen and Overy could benefit from interacting more with their followers. Their interactions are very one-sided and there lacks signifi-cant personal engagement with online users. !This is somewhat surprising because Allen and Overy have over 16.4k fol-lowers. On the surface, this appears in-credibly impressive and elevates Allen and Overy’s Twitter following way above their competitors. !However, a quick scan using the soft-ware programme Twitter Fake on Allen and Overy’s primary account reveals some interesting statistics.




!10% of their following can be attributed to fake accounts. Furthermore, 47% of Allen and Overy’s Twitter followers are from inactive users. This is alarming, to say the least, and drastically cuts down their audience reach by nearly 60%. !Evidently, this is something which needs to be addressed by Allen and Overy. It’s much better to focus on gaining quality followers, rather than simply relying on fake and inactive accounts. !Overall Allen and Overy have taken sig-nificant steps to thoroughly establish themselves on Twitter, but more still needs to be done.

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Taylor Wessing@TaylorWessing !Taylor Wessing are one of the most es-tablished and uniquely-cultured legal firms in London. They are very much an international business, with offices in (amongst others) Beijing, Dubai, Paris, and Vienna. !Overall, Taylor Wessing pride them-selves in being a large company with a small-business mindset; valuing excel-lence service, professional development, and copious amounts of charity work. With a 7% increase in profits between 2013 and 2014, they obviously have a business strategy which works for them. !However, unlike other legal firms in London, Taylor Wessing benefit from having an independent brand image be-yond their legal services. Many people know the law firm from their continuing sponsorship of the National Portrait Gallery. This has a huge marketing po-tential for Taylor Wessing - allowing them to attract a much greater audience than traditional law firms. !As a result, it’s not surprising to learn that Taylor Wessing have a significant Twitter following and an established so-cial media presence. !

What do Taylor Wessing do well? !Consumer segmentation Like Allen and Overy, Taylor Wessing have separate Twitter accounts for dif-ferent purposes - their main account, for example, is dedicated primarily for news updates and sharing useful articles. Their second account (@TWMediaTe-ch), however, was created for the lawyers themselves to interact with their followers. This isn’t just general conver-sation, though; the account is utilised to discuss various business and technologi-cal developments in the industry. !This is a great use of social media and is obviously very popular with their fol-lowers. In fact, Taylor Wessing has some the largest numbers of Twitter fol-lowers than any other London legal firm. !Quality Content One defining characteristic of Taylor Wessing’s Twitter updates is that they are interesting and immediately engag-ing. They don’t just use Twitter to tell their followers about the latest company news. Their @TWMediaTech account is also utilised to share other interesting articles and retweet useful content. !

�� This might seem mundane, but it shows that Taylor Wessing isn’t just interested in using Twitter to promote their own




material. Instead, they actively engage with other online users and create a per-sonal platform for their employees to make a valuable contribution to the company’s public image. !In addition to this, Taylor Wessing is quick to use Twitter for a very practical purpose: recruitment. !�� !This is a good use of social media, espe-cially considering that it allows Taylor Wessing to communicate with prospec-tive employees on a personal level. !Nevertheless, this isn’t always utilised to its fullest potential. Like many law firm Twitter accounts, Taylor Wessing could benefit from being dynamic in their social content. The use of images and more interaction would go some way to achieving this. !Consistency One of the ways that Taylor Wessing succeed in using Twitter efficiently is through regular use and distribution consistency. In fact, Taylor Wessing are very good at sending out tweets several times a day. This is in stark contrast to many other London legal firms who simply don’t afford time to pursuing so-cial media. !One of the ways that Taylor Wessing produces consistent social content is by promoting its Guardian blog. The Media

Tech Law blog is a fantastic resource for Taylor Wessing to discuss important in-dustry issues on a public platform. However, it wouldn’t be nearly as suc-cessful without the law firm actively promoting it on Twitter. This is some-thing that Taylor Wessing is incredibly good at achieving. !How can this be replicated? !If other legal firms want to achieve the same success as Taylor Wessing, then there are several steps that they should follow. !tweet engaging social content First of all, Taylor Wessing’s separate Twitter account is a fantastic platform to promote their lawyers and their individ-ual interests. Legal firms often suffer from owning overly-conservative Twit-ter accounts. However, Taylor Wessing’s account is more engaging and gives a personal edge to the company’s public image. !Promote regularly One of the most significant aspects of Taylor Wessing’s success is that they promote quality content on a frequent basis. Rather than updating their Twitter feed once a day, or less, they make a consistent effort to provide their follow-ers with useful information. This is an important lesson for any firm who wants to improve their social media status. !How can Taylor Wessing improve? !




Interacting more with users One of the ways that Taylor Wessing could improve is by interacting more with their users. Unfortunately, their Media Tech account is continually up-dating their newsfeed but they receive very little in the ways of replies. This means that their content, while popular, might not be engaging with users to its fullest potential. !Given that their Twitter account also contains very little in terms of visuals, Taylor Wessing could benefit from cre-ating a more image-heavy social media campaign. This would be more appeal-ing to users and help them to increase the firm’s social media outreach. !Take full advantage of their business connections In addition to this, Taylor Wessing do not currently take advantage of their sta-

tus as an avid supporter of the arts in London. If they had a separate Twitter account dedicated to this topic, for ex-ample, Taylor Wessing would succeed in accessing a far greater audience reach. At this moment in time, no other Lon-don legal firm is doing this - giving Tay-lor Wessing a uniquely advantageous position. !If Taylor Wessing want to increase their brand awareness and diversify their so-cial media following, then they should exploit their unique position within the arts sector. !Nevertheless, Taylor Wessing obviously have a strong Twitter presence. Their Media Tech account, moreover, is a great example of consistent and useful social content being distributed to a far-reaching audience. It’s just their primary account that requires further work. !




DLA Piper@DLA_Piper !DLA Piper are undoubtedly one of the biggest names in the London legal sec-tor. They have endured enormous finan-cial success and have been a major competitor in various areas of expertise, including banking, corporate finance, and real estate. DLA Piper are also one of the largest legal firms in London, with offices in over 30 countries throughout the world. !In terms of Twitter, DLA Piper have managed to cultivate for themselves a substantial following. They also update their social content regularly and have created individual accounts dedicated to different topics. !What do DLA Piper do well? !Consumer Segmentation DLA Piper have realised that online users turn to Twitter for different rea-sons. That’s why they’ve created indi-vidual accounts to suit separate purposes - such as their news account (@DLA_Piper_News) and dedicated real estate account (@DLARealEstate). This should allow them to promote dif-ferent types of content with the separate audiences, but there is an immediate problem. !Their @DLA_Piper_News account is entirely inactive - in fact, there has only

ever been one tweet. Even though this is almost entirely useless for consumers, there are still nearly 4000 people follow-ing this Twitter account. This would strongly suggest that there’s an audience who wants to hear about DLA Piper’s news updates, but they simply don’t have the energy or resources to com-plete this. !Unfortunately, this reflects very badly on DLA Piper and it’s a wonder why they’ve maintained the account this long. !Nevertheless, the DLARealEstate ac-count is a good example of Twitter be-ing used in an audience-driven way. With nearly 2000 followers, DLA Real Estate has managed to attract users who turn to the firm specifically for news and shares. However, this relationship isn’t just one-sided; this account also follows a substantial number of users and fre-quently retweets useful updates. !Sharing Content That People Want !

�� !Like some other legal firms, DLA Piper is good at sharing relevant and useful articles with their followers on Twitter. Not only are they just concerned with legal matters, they also distribute con-tent relating to the media, entertainment, and technological industries.




!This might seem like DLA Piper lack any focus on social media, but it’s actu-ally very useful for improving their con-sumer outreach. Even if an online user isn’t interested in buying services from the firm, they might still follow the ac-count because of its interesting shares. !All of these efforts help to make DLA Piper a thought-leader in their industry and reinforce their brand image across a multi-sectored platform. !How can this be replicated? !There are several key points for busi-nesses who wish to replicate the success of DLA Piper and their social media strategy. !Know your audience DLA Piper have legal expertise in a va-riety of industries, but they have chosen to create a Twitter account dedicated to one of the most competitive sectors - real estate. This serves the double pur-pose of allowing DLA Piper to solidify their status as a premiere provider of le-gal real estate advice; while also in-creasing their brand awareness and skills amongst the general public. !By creating a Twitter account which is driven entirely by the audience’s needs, DLA Piper have succeeded where many could not. Their account has a strong following and exists purely to provide useful and meaningful content to people who are interested in real estate.

!Achieve consistency One of the most important ways of building brand awareness and develop-ing long-term consumer relationships is through regular social media interac-tions. Consistently producing tweets is much more useful for users who want to learn more about a company. If your brand is boring, then they’ll simply move on elsewhere. !Build Trust Although there are many commendable areas of DLA Piper’s Twitter activity, there is still the issue of trust. The inac-tive DLA_Piper_News account suggests that the firm doesn’t have the energy to complete the task it set out to do. This gives an incredibly bad impression and doesn’t reflect on the firm’s elite status. !How can DLA Piper improve? !Be less conservative DLA Piper suffer many from the same social media problems as their competi-tors. Their tweets are somewhat conser-vative and lack any immediate sense of personality. Overall, there is very little in the way of photographs and visual engagement. !Develop quality followers In addition to this, DLA Piper have an issue with their follower numbers like Allen and Overy. 10% of the followers which subscribe to their primary ac-count are fake. Furthermore, 45% of the rest are inactive accounts. This is ex-




tremely bad for DLA Piper because it means that their customer outreach is much lower than previously anticipated. !To improve this problem, DLA Piper should develop meaningful relationships with their consumers to build upon their customer base. Other than making your brand look better, fake accounts achieve nothing for a company from a business and marketing perspective. Quite sim-ply, there’s no point in creating social content if over half of your followers won’t even see it. !Engage better with prospects In terms of their content on Twitter, DLA Piper could benefit from engaging better with their consumers. Although nearly all of DLA Piper’s tweets are al-ways retweeted, they receive almost no replies on a regular basis. Users are see-ing their Twitter updates, but they sim-ply aren’t interested in engaging with the brand on a meaningful level. This is a huge problem for their DLA_Piper_News account - in which the administrators only follow one user. As a result, the communication is entire-ly one-sided and lacks any basic interac-tion. !With regards to their main account, this shortfall in the business-consumer rela-tionship is extremely detrimental. They are failing to maximise the potential of their customer outreach and promote their content in the most effective way. !

It’s not the case that DLA Piper doesn’t have enough followers - they have thou-sands - however, the firm need to pro-duce social media content that entices people. Regular interaction would go some way in achieving this.




Freshfields @freshfields !Freshfields is a somewhat unusual case for a large-scale legal firm with regards to their presence on social media. Al-though the company is frequently re-garded as within the top 5 legal firms in London, it doesn’t have the same sub-stantial Twitter following as its competi-tors. !On the face of it, this seems extremely problematic for Freshfields. However, the firm produces some of the best tweets amongst London legal firms. They don’t have a disproportionate number of fake followers, unlike other companies, and they produce genuinely engaging social content. !What do Freshfields do well? !Great content Freshfields is one of the few legal firms in this report who have a genuinely in-teractive and interesting Twitter account. It’s much more engaging with its fol-lowers compared to other accounts; with plenty of catchy headlines such as: !

�� !This might seem like a small point to dwell on, but this is a rare example of a

legal twitter account directly communi-cating with a user. It’s much more en-gaging than simply sharing an interest-ing article with no comment or personal opinion. Furthermore, Freshfields uses Twitter to promote video content; creating an en-gaging platform to communicate with its followers. Many Twitter accounts from the legal sector are somewhat conserva-tive and fail to create visually interesting content that users want to share. !This is not the case with Freshfields. !Useful shares It’s always refreshing to see a profes-sional Twitter account which actively followers other users too. It suggests that the account isn’t just used as a waste bin for news updates, but is utilised in a more meaningful way. Freshfields is continually retweeting ar-ticles and news items that its followers might find interesting. !Overall, this is a much more useful and engaging way of utilising social media content. !Communicating with followers In addition to this, the Freshfields Twit-ter account is good at replying to users who contact them. !

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There is more of a dialogue between Freshfields and its consumers compared to other legal Twitter accounts. This helps to inject some personality into the firm - but more still needs to be done. !How can this be replicated? !If companies want to create a Twitter following based on real accounts and distributing meaningful content, then the Freshfields example is a useful place to start. Here are some useful tips on how to replicate Freshfields’ success. !Engage directly with users As has been previously suggested, the Freshfields’ Twitter account is quite good at enticing people to communicate with them. For instance: !

�� !This is a positive example of social me-dia being used in a much more engaging way than simply sending out news up-dates. It directly communicates with the audience and offers a useful way to do-nate for their charitable cause. All round, this is a good and meaningful tweet. !Create content that audiences want Freshfields has a good understanding of who their audience is and what they want from using Twitter. That’s why they often advertise their vacancies and job opportunities to graduates.

!They have also helped to establish themselves as thought-leaders through their promotion of ‘how to’ videos on Twitter. Here is an example: !

�� !Videos are incredibly useful for engag-ing with users and encouraging them to share your content with their followers. They’re easy to understand, cheap to make, and much more memorable than written text. !If you are a business who wants to culti-vate your Twitter following, then videos and quality content are an excellent place to start. !How can Freshfields improve? !Achieve consistency As you can guess by now, regular tweet-ing is extremely important for business-es who want to develop long-term and meaningful relationships with their cus-tomers. While Freshfields do well in creating interesting content, they simply don’t tweet enough. !




It’s a common problem in the legal sec-tor that not enough time is devoted to maximising the business potential of so-cial media. Freshfields’ Twitter account is updated roughly once a day; meaning that they don’t dedicate enough energy to increasing their brand awareness. !This is problematic for several reasons. Users who follow a business online do so to receive regular updates regarding news and events. When this doesn’t happen, they are less likely to develop a relationship with that business and in-vest in their product. In turn, legal firms are less likely to attract the best recruits and generate leads. !Create audience-driven accounts In many ways, there are unique advan-tages for Freshfields because they only have one Twitter account. They are able to focus their energy in one place and they can develop their audience all un-der one roof. !However, this is also somewhat messy. It doesn’t take long to scan through Freshfields’ account to realise that there are 3 key areas of corporate interest: !• Recruitment • Communication (news updates) • Promotion (charitable events) !If you were a graduate looking a job at Freshfields, for example, then you might be deterred from contacting them via Twitter. There are lots of tweets con-cerning different things, but very little

focus in terms of overall theme and con-sumer targeting. This is confusing and arguably appears unprofessional. To tackle this problem, Freshfields needs to create separate accounts and target its audiences more thoroughly. This will help to improve their con-sumer reach and ensure that their con-tent is noticed by the right people. !At this moment in time, Freshfields has significantly less Twitter followers than its main competitors. This advice would go some way in rectifying this problem.




Clifford Chance@CC_UK_PR !Clifford Chance are undoubtedly one of the most established and prestigious le-gal firms in London. They pride them-selves on being a global brand with a client-focussed approach to working - meaning that they are a genuine thought-leader in legal sector. !Clifford Chance have a wide area of ex-pertise, including in finance, real estate, and litigation. Their success has allowed them to open several different offices across the world - from London, to Mo-rocco, and even Brazil. !Overall, Clifford Chance have a very good Twitter strategy and they have succeeded in creating multiple influen-tial accounts across the world. What do Clifford Chance do well? !Different accounts per country Clifford Chance are one of the largest law firms in the world, so it makes sense that they have separate Twitter accounts for different locations. This is a fantastic way for Clifford Chance to segment their customers and meet their needs in a more pragmatic way. !

For example, their UK account (@CC_UK_PR) is used primarily to promote interesting corporate and legal news based in Britain. This means that they aren’t sending out irrelevant infor-mation to their followers who don’t nec-essarily attach value to non-UK news. In doing so, Clifford and Chance are able to target prospects in a more effective way. !This system obviously works; their ac-count has over 8.5k followers at this current point in time. !In addition to this, Clifford Chance are one of the few legal companies to have an overseas Twitter account which isn’t written in English. To compliment their offices in Amsterdam, they have a Dutch Twitter account which is used to pro-mote EU and international news up-dates. The account is somewhat success-ful, with roughly 2000 followers, and it sends out social content on a much more regular basis than its US and UK coun-terparts. !Valuable content Clifford Chance are very good at using social media to effectively promote their newsletters and corporate updates. Their individual accounts are used for differ-ent purposes, meaning that they typical-ly share content which is specific to that country. This is much more useful than sending out articles and newsletters which aren’t relevant to that locale. !




They make a relatively consistent effort in doing this, but they need to use Twit-ter more than once a day if they want to see real results. !

�� !Regular distribution In recent weeks, the UK Clifford Chance account hasn’t been updated as regularly as it has been in the past. However, last month, Clifford Chance were sending out tweets several times everyday. This is a much more effective use of social media and helped to gener-ate more interest in the Clifford Chance brand. !One of the reasons that Clifford Chance have such a strong following on Twitter is because of their regular and useful so-cial content updates. !How can this be replicated? !If other companies want to replicate this success, then there are several useful tips they can follow. !Target your audience directly Although there is room for Clifford Chance to improve, they have succeeded in establishing for themselves several prominent Twitter accounts across three countries. This is no small task and

demonstrates the firm’s commitment to producing quality content and distribut-ing it effectively. !Overall, Clifford Chance have realised that different audiences (across separate continents) have individual customer needs. By segmenting their customers according to geography, Clifford Chance can promote content which is relevant to the client. !Other international legal firms should consider doing the same. !Update your content regularly One of the key methods in increasing your Twitter following is through regu-lar content distribution. This helps to build client relationships and develop consumer trust - when regularity is pushed to the side, that trust begins to deteriorate. !How can Clifford Chance improve? !Create more engaging tweets Like many legal Twitter accounts, Clif-ford Chance could benefit from being less conservative in their social content. Take this tweet, for example: !

�� !This tweet is being used to promote a company newsletter written by Alastair Mordaunt, a Partner at Clifford Chance. This is obviously an important piece of




content and should be promoted through various social media channels in an at-tempt to entice readers. However, the tweet is uninformative, uninteresting, and lacks any enthusiasm. As a result, it generated very little engagement with audiences. !To combat this problem, Clifford Chance need to use social media to its fullest potential and generate meaning-ful social content. Only by doing so can they maximise their sharability and de-velop client relationships. !Achieve consistency across the company One of the challenges for Clifford Chance is to produce social content which is consistent in quality and distri-bution across their accounts. The UK and US PR accounts are a good example of this problem. !Both are intended to promote articles and news updates related to Clifford Chance, but they vary considerably in terms of quality output. The UK account is updated roughly once every few days, whereas the US counterpart only tweets around once a week. This means that neither account is being used to its fullest potential. Furthermore, it sug-gests that the company cannot achieve consistency across the board. !Engage better with prospects Like many of the legal firm Twitter ac-counts in this report, Clifford Chance could benefit enormously by actively engaging with their prospects. Too often

their tweets are used primarily to give news updates. This is very useful infor-mation, but it lacks any personal in-volvement between the business and its customers. !If Clifford Chance want to increase their lead generation, then they should make a consistent effort to communicate di-rectly with their prospects. Clifford Chance could send their newsletters to specific individuals who are interested in their work; helping to increase their status as a thought-leader and potential-ly generate more business.




Linklaters @LinklatersLLP !Linklaters are one of the first companies that people imagine when they think about legal firms in London. They work on a variety of multi-jurisdictional cases and have won a variety of awards for their excellent work; including Law Firm of the Year (Poland) over this past year. !Overall, Linklaters carry this profes-sional excellent into their social media campaign with rigour, enthusiasm, and commitment. They have one of the best Twitter accounts of this report and con-tinue to set a positive example for their competitors to emulate. !What do Linklaters do well? !Exciting interactions Linklaters are one of the few companies in this report who don’t embrace con-servatism in their tweets. Their updates are frequent, consistent in quality, and very engaging. In addition to this, the Linklaters Twitter account is good at communicating with other people - rather than just sharing interesting arti-cles. !Here is an example:

��

!Unlike many other legal firm Twitter ac-counts, there’s much more personality to Linklater’s social content. The same can be said for their Graduate Twitter ac-count which has plenty of engaging up-dates: !

�� !It’s not simply the case that Linklaters have more time to create exciting and regular tweets. Instead, they have recognised that personalised social con-tent is much more likely to grab a user’s attention. In fact, Linklaters is so good at tweeting quality content, it’s worth following their account even if you have only a slight interest in the legal sector. !Targeting graduates People use social media for a variety of purposes. For legal firms, it’s vital to create a public platform so that prospec-tive employees can contact you. It’s also a useful way to keep close contact with prestigious universities and get involved with local events. !!The Linklaters graduate account is a very good example of a legal firm tar-geting graduates in a meaningful and productive way. For example, Linklaters frequently produce webcasts in conjunc-tion with the international University of Law:




�� !This is a great example of Linklaters utilising social media to its fullest poten-tial. The tweet is useful, informative, and demonstrates the very reason why separate graduate Twitter accounts are vital: to target young audiences directly. !This type of tweet isn’t useful for prospects or building prestigious client relationships. It’s for future recruitment purposes. !Frequent tweeting In addition to this, the Linklaters Twitter accounts are excellent at producing fre-quent updates. They tweet several times a day, over both platforms, and engage directly with audiences. This is some-thing that many legal firms fail to do. !In this sense, Linklaters are paving the way for London legal firms in terms of social content and online communica-tion. !Quality Content Don’t be fooled, however; Linklaters don’t just use social media to chat with other online users. They also provide their followers with very useful content. The main account, for instance, is used to advertise any publications or newslet-ters that the firm produces. It’s also used to share other interesting articles; help-ing to increase Linklaters’ status as a thought leader.

Their business strategy is obviously working; both accounts currently have a combined following of over 7000 users. !How can this be replicated? !There are many lessons which can be taken from Linklaters’ use of social me-dia. Here are some of the most impor-tant points to consider: !Encourage users to get excited about your brand Linklaters excel at using social media to entice users and get them interested in their brand. !Create dialogues In addition to this, Linklaters have set a high standard for taking the time to re-spond to online users. This is problem that many other legal firm Twitter ac-counts struggle with. However, Lin-klaters have a much more personalised approach to social networking and excel at communicating with others online:

�� !It’s much easier to build client relation-ships and develop prospects if compa-




nies take the time to communicate with their online audiences. !Linklaters are one of the best legal firms at doing this; so many other businesses could learn from their example. !Give a platform to students It’s now common policy for legal firms to develop close working relationships with many of the most prestigious uni-versities throughout the UK. This is ex-tremely profitable, for a variety of rea-sons, but it cannot be achieved fully without a comprehensive social media campaign. !Twitter is a great tool for students to contact prospective employers and learn more about a firm. Linklaters have re-alised this and created a separate Twitter account just for their graduates. To make things even better, they update it regular and communicate directly with their fol-lowers. You couldn’t ask for more. !How can Linklaters improve? !Overall, Linklaters have a very good presence on Twitter (on both of their ac-counts). They are consistent in their dis-tribution and have a genuinely engaging online demeanour. !There is not much that Linklaters can do to improve their social content, but there are some points they may wish to con-sider. Consider creating more accounts

For example, Linklaters are a global brand with 29 different offices based the world; from Germany to Hong Kong. However, they only have a Twitter ac-count for their London base - meaning that there’s no Linklaters platform to communicate with their international clients. This is unfortunate and poten-tially limits the firm’s global reach. !Other than this, Linklaters just need to continue with their social media strategy and increase their brand awareness con-sistently across the globe.




Herbert Smith Freehills @HSFlegal !Herbert Smith are an elite legal firm in London, specialising in a variety of practice areas including corporate, regu-lation, and real estate. The firm pride themselves in building excellent client relationships and being one of the most ambitious legal firms in the city. With offices on 5 different continents, they have a comprehensive social media campaign and a good standing on Twit-ter. !What do Herbert Smith Freehills do well? !Excellent Follower-Following ratio The Herbert Smith Freehills Twitter ac-count is one of the few examples of a legal firm actively following other use-ful accounts too. More often than not, legal Twitter accounts are just used as a platform to distribute content. However, this account takes an active interest in promoting a wide range of topics from many different sectors. !�� !

Given that Herbert Smith Freehills in a variety of different sectors, it’s not sur-prising that they use Twitter to keep up-dated with the latest news and events. !This is an important component of any good Twitter account; something which Herbert Smith Freehills realise and use to their full advantage. !Quality content Many legal firms use Twitter to share interesting articles and news updates - and Herbert Smith Freehills is no differ-ent. They regularly produce video posts which helps to inform their followers about a variety of legal topics. As you would expect, Herbert Smith Freehills utilise Twitter to promote this content on a regular basis. This is much more en-gaging than merely sharing an article and helps to elevate Herbert Smith Freehills’ status as a thought-leader in their industry. !In addition to this, the firm is good at sending out content that people want to read and share. Here is a good example: !

�� !The tweet is informative and helps to give followers a good idea about the company’s ethical and moral pursuits. It’s also much more engaging than other types of tweets sent out about legal firms (which are often dull and conserv-




ative). In this sense, @HSFlegal are good at engaging with their followers but there is still room for improvement: This type of Tweet could benefit from being more informative. There is no in-formation about who wrote the article or what type of content it is. By and large, the majority of Herbert Smith Freehill’s Tweets are very good, but they could profit from applying this skill across the board. !Consistency The @HSFlegal Twitter account is up-dated on a regular basis; sometimes even several times a day. It’s incredibly important for businesses who want to increase their lead generation to produce social content frequently. This is some-thing that Herbert Smith Freehills excel at; setting a high standard for their com-petitors to match. !There is also consistency in the overall quality of the tweets too. With the odd exception, the updates are informative and useful - helping to develop long-term relationships between the firm and its clients. !How can this be replicated? !Send out useful content If users want to develop a substantial Twitter following and increase their dia-logue with prospects, then it would be beneficial to give audiences content that is actually helpful to them. Sharing in-teresting articles, with a personal spin, is much more useful than simply tweeting

news updates. This something that Her-bert Smith Freehills have proven their competence in. !�� !However, for those who want to give themselves an edge, it’s important to at-tach images to your tweets. This makes your social content much more eye-catching and memorable. !Update your tweets regularly It cannot be stressed enough how impor-tant it is to send out tweets on a frequent basis. Herbert Smith Freehills dedicates time and attention to ensuring that their social content is updated at least once a day. This helps to improve their status as a thought-leader and potentially gener-ate more interest in the brand. !How can Herbert Smith Freehills im-prove? !Improve their graduate account Herbert Smith Freehills have a separate Twitter account for prospective gradu-ates, but it’s used in a very poor way. They only send out Tweets once a week (or fortnight, in some cases) and the firm fails to interact with students in a mean-ingful way. Their social content is also somewhat uninspired: !




�� !The Advocacy Competition should be an exciting event, but Herbert Smith Freehills fails to effectively promote it in an engaging way. The tweet is infor-mative but it lacks any of the personality it deserves. !The main problem for Herbert Smith Freehills, however, is there lack of con-sistency is distribution. Their graduate is poorly managed and reflects very badly on the company; suggesting that they lack the energy or resources to properly maintain the account. !Online users are obviously aware of this, which is why the account has very little social reach: !�� !Include more images Like many of the legal firms in this re-port, Herbert Smith Freehills’s Twitter account lacks visual engagement. There are almost no photographs or images at-tached to the tweets - meaning that their tweets fail to catch as much attention as they deserve.

This is not a problem for the firm’s main Twitter account, which is actually very good, but unique to their separate grad-uate account.




Hogan Lovells @HoganLovells !Hogan Lovells is one of the most estab-lished legal firms in the UK. They work with a variety of businesses, including large corporations, governmental de-partments, and financial institutions. In addition to this, they have over 2,500 employees throughout the world - oper-ating primarily in Washington, London, and Hong Kong. !Hogan Lovells has a unique approach to their social media strategy. They are one of the few firms to create separate ac-counts for their individual departments; something which has its own advantages and disadvantages. !What do Hogan Lovells do well? !Hogan Lovells have a substantial Twit-ter following and use their account pri-marily to share updates and interesting news articles. However, their main area of success can be attributed to their divi-sion of Twitter accounts according to different industries. !Purpose-driven accounts Hogan Lovells have 8 different ac-counts; each created to suit a unique purpose and reach its own targeted audi-ence. This includes:

!• Payment Innovations team (@HLPayments) • Privacy team (@HLPrivacy) • Intellectual Property team (HoganLovellsIP) • Corporate responsibility (@HLCitizenship) • General matters (@HoganLovells) • UK Press office (@HoganLovellsUK) • US Press office (@HoganLovellsUS) • Spanish office (@HoganLovellsES) !The great thing about these accounts is that they allow Hogan Lovells to seg-ment their customer base and target prospective clients accordingly. The ‘payments’ account, for example, is used to promote content relating to financial matters in the wider legal industry. !Furthermore, Hogan Lovells is one of the few firms to have a foreign Twitter account dedicated in a non-English lan-guage. This is something which will ar-guably become more important as firms continue to open offices across the world. !Engaging content In addition to this, the ‘Citizenship’ ac-count is incredibly engaging and enjoys a large Twitter following. Some of their tweets are particularly enticing, such as:

�� !� of �28 63Prominent London Legal Firms and Their Twitter Accounts



One of the problems with many legal firm Twitter accounts is that they lack any images or friendly faces. This is not the case with @HLCitizenship - where there are regular updates with interest-ing and useful pieces of content. !How can this replicated? !Create separate Twitter accounts for dif-ferent departments There is an immediate challenge facing legal firms who want to create a Twitter account based on their corporate inter-ests. As the magic circle continue to ex-pand their offices across the world, it’s difficult to manage a unified social me-dia campaign which effectively reflects their values and industrial practices. !One of the ways that Hogan Lovells combats this problem is through sepa-rate Twitter accounts for different sec-tors. There are downsides to this methodology, as will be explored short-ly, but it allows the firm to segment their audience and its interests more effec-tively. !It also gives staff at Hogan Lovells the opportunity to try new things and exper-iment with social media. !Share content from reputable sources Hogan Lovells is good at sharing con-tent from trustworthy and informative sources; helping them to build upon their network of client relationships across the world.

Of all the Hogan Lovells Twitter ac-counts, the US general account is by far the most successful. One of the reasons for this popularity is because they fre-quently tweet about news events and ar-ticles which are specific to its targeted audience. For example, there is plenty of information for their clients and prospects who work in the public sector: !

�� !This type of content would be largely un-useful for Hogan Lovells’ European market, but it’s perfect for their clients in the US. !If other legal firms wish to replicate this success, then they should consider dis-tributing content which has a pragmatic use for their clients. !Tweet regularly Although ‘Citizenship’ isn’t the most popular Hogan Lovells Twitter account,




it is updated regularly and is consistent in quality: !

�� !The language is emotional and is much more engaging than simply sharing news stories with very little personal comment. This is something that Hogan Lovells frequently succeeds in; helping them to improve their client relation-ships and increase their sharability. !How can Hogan Lovells improve? !Overall, Hogan Lovells have made a very good attempt at creating a compre-hensive and consistent social media strategy. However, there are still some areas which could be improved upon. !Achieve consistency The separate Twitter accounts for Hogan Lovells are very useful, but they are not consistent in their popularity. !!!

The main account has a significant fol-lowing on Twitter: !�� !Alternatively, when you look at the ‘payments’ account, there is much less buzz surrounding the firm: !�� !This problem is less apparent for the ‘privacy’ account, but there is still a large discrepancy: !�� !In order to combat this problem, it’s highly important that Hogan Lovells dedicate an equal amount of time and attention into improving their social media accounts. !Consider Consolidation If this fails to work, then Hogan Lovells may wish to consider consolidating their individual Twitter accounts into smaller, more manageable accounts. This would take less time and energy - helping the firm to focus their efforts on one target market. In addition to this, they wouldn’t need to utilise so much of their employees’ time on social media inter-action.




Ashurst@ashurst !Ashurst might not be the largest legal firm in this report, but they have estab-lished themselves as a well-respected and esteemed business in the centre of London. They have 24 different offices across the world and focus specifically on mergers, finance, and acquisitions. !In terms of social media, Ashurst have a strong following on Twitter but they do not update their content regularly enough. They are known for sharing quality content but it seems to attract very little in the way of attention. !Nevertheless, their account is undoubt-edly successful and Ashurst have an in-teresting approach to their Twitter strat-egy. !What do Ashurst do well? !Useful information Ashurst’s Twitter account is primarily used as a vehicle to advertise their newsletters and briefings. As this report will soon discuss, these updates are reg-imented but they are also advantageous-ly concise. Nearly all of the tweets are structured in the same way:

Although there are downsides to this approach, Ashurst’s account makes it easier for online users to access useful information in the quickest way possi-ble. You simply have to scroll down the screen and find ‘Read our latest X’ to access your document. !Consistency In addition to this, Ashurst’s Twitter ac-count is consistent in sharing the same type of content on a weekly basis. In terms of their social content, Ashurst are good at being reliable and distributing their content at a regular time slot. This is something that many legal firms could benefit from implementing. !Overall, it’s tempting to speculate that a partial reason for Ashurst’s Twitter suc-cess is due to having one social media account. They don’t have separate ac-counts dedicated to different topics and client segments. Everything is in one convenient location, allowing for greater ease of access and potential communica-tion. It’s difficult to prove this notion beyond pure speculation, but one thing remains clear: Ashurst’s significant Twitter follow is a testament to their sta-tus as prominent intellectual leader in the legal sector. !How can this be replicated? !Ashurst have two-pronged approach to their social media strategy: consistency and quality. Unlike many other legal firm Twitter accounts, they use their platform purely to advertise their corpo-




rate publications. This is immensely useful for their followers who are inter-ested in newsletters written on litigation and commercial matters. However, it also runs the risk of alienating other au-diences who aren’t as well versed in these legal matters. !Although Ashurst must increase the reg-ularity of their tweets, they have already established a positive benchmark for re-leasing updates at a (roughly) set time each week. This means that their fol-lowers know what to expect and can an-ticipate when the next Ashurst publica-tion will be advertised. Overall, this is an incredibly useful tactic and helps to reinforce the firm’s status as a thought-leader. !If there any lessons to be taken from Ashurst’s example, it’s that legal firms must achieve continuity across the board. Great content, with consistent so-cial media promotion, cannot necessari-ly be enough to generate long term client relationships. Instead, publication should be promoted in conjunction with other interesting shares and useful tweets. !How can Ashurst improve? !Update their content more regularly It’s evident from Ashurst’s Twitter ac-count that they dedicate roughly once a week to distributing content on social media. There are clear patterns in the updates - every 5-7 days, there will be a morning set aside for sharing Ashurst

articles and newsletters. Furthermore, there is very little evidence of the com-pany account being used to contact prospects or share other examples of in-teresting content. !To combat this problem, it’s paramount that Ashurst begin to use social media with regularity and commitment. They have a substantial Twitter following, but there is hardly any evidence of commu-nication between the company and other leads. This is a significant business blunder; after all, social media is intend-ed to bring people together, not drive them apart. !Mix things up One of the other problems with Ashurst’s Twitter account is that there’s no real engagement with prospects and other online users. The dialogue is one-sided and consists of sharing corporate material. Although this is undoubtedly useful, it’s somewhat conservative and lacks any overt sense of personality. The overall impression that this Twitter ac-count gives is that someone is merely going through the motions. !If Ashurst want to improve on this prob-lem, then they should consider sharing and distributing more unusual content. This would help them to shed their con-servative persona and create content that excites people. For example, much of their briefings are based on data. They could create eye-catching infographics to draw the attention of readers and in-crease their Twitter following.




!Communicate with others One of the challenges facing Ashurst’s Twitter account is finding a way to communicate better with online users. Overall, their tweets receive roughly 1-3 retweets each and the occasional ‘favourite’ - but hardly anyone ever replies to them. This is a shame because the lack of dialogue indicates that users simply aren’t engaging with the social content. !In the legal sector, business is built upon lead generation and client relationships. Social media is an extension of that process and should be maximised to its fullest potential. !That’s why Ashurst should make a sys-tematic attempt to create interesting so-cial content that people want to read, share, and (most importantly) discuss. This is how you help to develop long-term communication between a business and its clients.




Pinsent Masons @PinsentMasons !Pinsent Masons are one of the most revered legal firms in the city of Lon-don. They have over 350 partners and employ more than 2,500 staff across the world - allowing them to establish of-fices in various cities, such as Hong Kong, Munich, and Shanghai. !Pinsent Masons are unique in that they focus on four main sectors in the legal industry: finance, infrastructure, energy, and manufacturing. In terms of their company ethos, Pinsent Masons pride themselves on building their company directly upon the needs of their clients. !To reflect this diversity and dedication, the firm have two Twitter accounts - one for general matters (@PinsentMasons) and the other specifically catered to-wards graduates (@PMgrads). !What do Pinsent Masons do well? !tweeting quality content Pinsent Masons’ Twitter account is one of the few in this report which tweet out non-legal matters on a regular basis. For example, their press office frequently publish commentaries on important news events:

�� !There is an obvious advantage for Pin-sent Masons by frequently sharing non-legal articles: their social content is in-stantly accessible, regardless of a user’s sector. This means that the account isn’t just useful for people who are a lawyer, partner, or trainee. It has universal ap-peal. !Good communication The Pinsent Masons’ graduate Twitter account is good at nurturing dialogues between the company and its potential new employees. They provide graduates with genuinely helpful advice and are always quick to reply when an online user has a question. Furthermore, they actively attempt to engage with young adults frequently: !

�� !This is something that many legal firms could benefit from practicing more widely. It’s vital for members of the le-gal sector to communicate directly with aspiring lawyers. This helps them to generate potential leads and cultivate any future recruitment opportunities. !




In addition to this, Pinsent Masons’ graduate account is very good offering a personalised approach to social media interaction: !

�� !Overall, the tone is friendly and ap-proachable; exactly what users want from communicating with a law firm over the internet. !Visually engaging content One of the other reasons for Pinsent Masons’ success is that their social con-tent is visually engaging. Their reports often include images and photographs which makes their account appear more eye-catching and dynamic. Here is a good example: !

�� !Although this is something that the firm need to do more often, they have already set a good precedent for using striking visuals in their tweets. This might not

seem important, but it’s vital for legal businesses to make themselves stand out from their competitors in the context of social media. One of the ways to achieve this is through exciting and en-gaging visuals. !How can this be replicated? !Pay attention to students If other companies want to enjoy the same success as Pinsent Masons, then they should create a separate Twitter ac-count for graduates. This is a fantastic opportunity for legal firms to shed their conservative image and engage directly with users in a more friendly way. More often than not, legal firms are very good at using their graduate accounts to communicate directly with people. !Take an interest in non-legal content One of the challenges facing legal firms and their Twitter accounts is finding a way to appeal directly to non-legal fol-lowers. The very nature of the legal in-dustry means that lawyers must engage directly with a variety of businesses across a limitless amount of sectors. !To combat this problem, many legal firms could look at the example from Pinsent Masons. They successfully manage to tweet about a variety of top-ics and appeal to a wider range of audi-ences than other legal firms. This is in-credibly important for raising brand awareness and generating leads for any business. !




How can Pinsent Masons improve? !tweet more regularly Pinsent Masons are very popular on so-cial media, but they aren’t maximising Twitter to its fullest potential. Their main account is only updated once every few days - meaning that they aren't communicating enough with their clients and prospects. This is a huge dis-advantage for the firm, especially con-sidering how effective regular tweeting can be useful for improving any digital marketing strategy. !Use their main account to its fullest po-tential The Pinsent Masons graduate account is very good at communicating with others and developing meaningful relationships with Twitter followers. However, less can be said for their main account. It has hardly any interaction and is used pri-marily as a vehicle to promote corporate content. Although it’s vital to advertise corporate publications on Twitter, users appreciate variety too. !Pinsent Masons could benefit from at-tempting to engage directly with their followers on a regular basis. For exam-ple, they could send their content direct-ly to the people who want to read it. This would allow them to develop rela-tionships with their clients and even generate more interest in their business brand. !In addition to this, their main Twitter account could benefit greatly from using

more visuals and videos. This would help them to distinguish their brand from their competitors and establish their own unique corporate identity on Twitter. !Follow more Twitter accounts Given that Pinsent Masons are being ‘followed’ by considerably more online users than they follow themselves, it would strongly suggest that the firm is considered a thought-leader in their sec-tor. !However, one of the problems with Pin-sent Masons’ account is that they don’t communicate enough with other users. Their lack of engagement is a testament to the fact that they use Twitter primari-ly as a promotion tool. This is all very well, but it means that the firm aren’t using social media to its fullest poten-tial. !To combat this problem, it might be beneficial for Pinsent Masons to take more of an interest in sharing content from other useful accounts. As a result, the firm would appear less conservative and actively demonstrate their social connections throughout the world.




Norton RoseFulbright @NLegal_Global !Norton Rose Fulbright are undoubtedly one of the most successful legal firms based in London. They have over 50 of-fices throughout the world spanning across 5 different continents. Further-more, they specialise in a wide range of legal sectors, including finance, energy, and regulation. !Norton Rose Fulbright is a truly global brand; something which is effectively reflected in their Twitter campaign. They have a large number of Twitter accounts, each divided according to region. There is also one main account used by their London office to promote newsletters, corporate events, and international legal news. !This is a very popular account, as is made evident by their significant fol-lower base:

What do Norton Rose Fulbright do well? !Regional accounts

As a global brand network, Norton Rose Fulbright have created a chain of Twitter accounts to reflect their diversity and bring their audiences directly relevant content. They have 5 separate accounts, which include: !• General corporate (@NLegal_Global) • Canadian office (@NLegal_CA) • American office (@NLegal_US) • Australian office (@NLegal_AU) • South African office (@NLegal_ZA) !This might seem like a lot of work, but each account is managed directly by the press office in that particular country. There is a lot of merit to this system and it suggests that the firm are approaching social media from the perspective of their clients. !Each of their followers, no matter where they’re based, is able to access informa-tion which is directly relevant to them. !Content promotion Norton Rose Fulbright are very good at using Twitter to promote their corporate materials. For example, they product a wide range of arbitration reports cover-ing different sectors. This would seem to be one of the primary reasons for the Twitter account. !In addition to this, Norton Rose Ful-bright also tweet out a variety of corpo-rate news updates relating to their of-fices across the world. This is much more sporadic, but overall the firm are




well versed in providing their followers with a diverse range of social content. !How can this be replicated? !Find an audience and target them There are potential downsides to Norton Rose’s regional Twitter accounts, such as inconsistency, but it’s an incredibly useful strategy for businesses who oper-ate on an international basis. Norton Rose Fulbright have realised that differ-ent clients value different types of con-tent depending on their location. To combat this problem, they have created individual accounts which segment their audience and allow the firm to target them more effectively. !Although this might not work for every firm, it’s definitely something that could benefit many businesses who have of-fices across the world. It requires a lot of time and energy, but the rewards are promising. !Promote everything you publish It’s not simply enough to publish great content and expect it to promote itself. Norton Rose Fulbright are very efficient in ensuring that their corporate materials are always advertised on Twitter for everyone to see. For those who work in the legal sector, this type of promotion is incredibly useful and helps to ensure that the firm’s content reaches a much wider audience. !If other firms wish to replicate this suc-cess, then they should consider allowing

employees to share company content on their own accounts. This will increase page views and help to raise brand awareness across a much broader social spectrum. !How can Norton Rose Fulbright im-prove? !Use their ‘global’ account more regular-ly Norton Rose Fulbright’s US Twitter ac-count is updated regularly and with re-markable efficiency. However, this is not replicated across the board and their ‘global’ account is updated (roughly) once every 1-2 days. This is not enough; especially if the London firm want to increase their brand awareness through-out Europe. The Americans are currently paving the way, but there’s no reason why London can’t achieve the same re-sults. !Engage directly with users This is a theme that is frequently recur-ring throughout this report. Not enough of the London legal firms are making a systematic effort to build up client rela-tionships through active Twitter en-gagement. This isn’t just mundane chit-chat; these efforts help to develop mean-ingful and useful contacts for a firm. !It’s great to see that Norton Rose Ful-bright use Twitter to promote their con-tent, but they could also make more of an effort to engage directly with users. Overall, this would help the firm to achieve a universal social media strate-




gy that saw success throughout the Twit-ter accounts - not just primarily for their US version. !Consider opening a graduate account It might seem like the last thing that Norton Rose Fulbright need is another Twitter account, but they should consid-er opening a graduate account. This would be an effective way of communi-cating with potential employees on a much more focussed platform. !At this current point in time, their global account is dedicated primarily to sharing corporate content. Much of this content is too sector-specific to be informative to students.




CMS Cameron McKenna @CMS_Law !CMS Cameron McKenna are one of the largest legal firms in this report, with over 3000 employees in total and 58 of-fices across the world. They specialise in 8 industry groups, including commercial law, real estate, and dispute resolution. In terms of their company ethos, they pride themselves on focussing on client relationships rather than ideals - mean-ing that they offer a personalised service while maintaining a multinational com-pany throughout the globe. !Overall, CMS Cameron McKenna are very well established and have endured significant success in their social media strategy. Their numbers speak for them-selves:

What do CMS Cameron McKenna do well? !A great graduate account CMS Cameron McKenna’s graduate Twitter account is a great example of a legal firm providing useful social con-tent to students. Their tweets are engag-

ing, informative, and are genuinely helpful to anyone who is considering en-tering the legal profession. !Here is an example:

Rather than just linking to the bursary page, CMS Cameron McKenna have made their content much more engaging by using Twitter in a friendly and ap-proachable way. They are also good at appealing directly to users and giving them articles that are actually useful:

Altogether, these efforts help to make this graduate account one of the most useful and engaging Twitter feeds of its kind. !Regular updates One of the reasons for CMS Cameron McKenna’s success is that they tweet very regularly. They have a much more established social presence than other legal firm accounts. On any given day, you can expect to see their Twitter feed several times with useful and interesting content. This means that their account has greater value to its followers; it also helps to increase the brand awareness of




CMS Cameron McKenna on a daily ba-sis. !Sharing content from established publi-cations Unlike many legal firms in this report, CMS Cameron McKenna’s primary Twitter account is very good at sharing great content. Many firms simply use social media to promote their own cor-porate materials, taking very little time to show interest in other Twitter ac-counts. !However, CMS Cameron McKenna ex-cels at sharing quality content from prestigious accounts on a regular basis. Retweeting might not seem important, but it shows that a firm has a good knowledge of their sector and takes an active interest in their contemporary’s work. All of this contributes to a busi-ness’ status as a thought-leader in their field. !How can this be replicated? !Make an effort to update Twitter regu-larly To replicate the success of CMS Cameron McKenna, it’s important that legal firms tweet regularly and make a consistent effort to engage personally with online users. Although this is something which CMS Cameron McKenna haven’t achieved across the board, they have made a significant step towards achieving this with their gradu-ate account. !

By regularly updating their Twitter ac-count and taking the time to respond to followers, the firm is able to offer a per-sonalised service which is in-keeping with the company’s wider set of beliefs. This also helps them to increase their brand awareness and build upon their already well-established client relation-ships. !Create a graduate-driven Twitter ac-count This has been mentioned already in this report, but it’s an important business strategy that many legal firms fail to im-plement. CMS Cameron McKenna’s graduate Twitter account has forged great relationships with London-based universities and has succeeded in estab-lishing the firm as a premiere choice for ambitious graduates. !To emulate this success, it’s important that legal firms take the time to commu-nicate directly with prospective employ-ees. !How can CMS Cameron McKenna improve? !Improve the quality of their tweets The account occasionally suffers from being overly conservative and uninfor-mative. !A good tweet should entice the reader and simply beg to be clicked on and shared. !




Overall, however, CMS Cameron McKenna have a good social media strategy and already tweet with impres-sive regularity. However, they need to develop their online relationships fur-ther.




Wragge LawrenceGraham & Co.@WraggeLaw !Wragge Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. and Co. are one of the oldest and best established legal firms in London; their founding company, Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co., can be traced back over 300 years. They have gone through many changes in recent years, but they continue to go from strength to strength in the London legal sector. !Overall, the firm employ roughly 1200 people and have opened 10 offices across the world. !In terms of social media, Wragge Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. & Co. have a strong presence on Twitter and have implemented a very effective busi-ness strategy to maintain their success. !At this current point in time, here are their crucial statistics:

What do Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. do well? !Sharing useful content In the same manner as many legal firms in this report, Wragge Lawrence Gra-ham & Co. use their Twitter account primarily as a promotional tool for cor-porate publications. Their legal updates frequently appear on the company Twit-ter feed - meaning that they have a com-prehensive social media strategy to promote their publications. !The great thing about Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co.’s Twitter account, how-ever, is that there is so much variety in their content. Their social content is use-ful for a plethora of sectors and carries weight across multiple social media channels: !Tweeting regularly Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. excel at using social media on a regular basis and giving their followers useful and in-teresting information. In fact, they send out new tweets several times a day with remarkable consistency. This indicates that Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. have the time and resources available to execute their social media strategy ef-fectively. !Taking an active interest in other ac-counts Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. have an engaging and dynamic Twitter ac-count partly due to their substantial ‘fol-lowing’ numbers. By actively taking an




interest in other users, and sharing their content, the Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. account is much more useful to their followers. Their account acts as a general guide to everything important going on in the legal world. !Variety of content In addition to this, this Twitter account is also useful for people who aren’t nec-essarily employed in the legal sector. For example, they tweet about news events which interest them personally and may have value for their followers:

These publications and promotions on social media demonstrate that Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. are well-rounded and carry significance beyond their immediate professional periphery. It also means that their Twitter account can prove useful to people who aren’t employed in the legal sector. This helps to increase their brand awareness over a much larger social platform than before. !How can this be replicated? !Inject some personality into your tweets One of the interesting things about Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co.’s Twitter account is that it contains more corporate personality than other firms’. Their tweets can often be engaging and offer snippets into the corporate culture at the company:

Create a fantastic Twitter account dedi-cated to students Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. are very good at maintaining a useful Twit-ter account dedicated for the use of graduates. They provide their followers with plenty of information about how to develop skills and prepare their CV for a potential career in law. This type of uni-versality has mass appeal and means that online users can turn to them for a variety of reasons. !If other firms wish to emulate this suc-cess, then they might want to consider creating a graduate account which dis-tributes genuinely helpful content for students. Not only this, but it’s so im-portant that graduate accounts have a friendly and personable tone - some-thing which Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. supply in abundance. !Communicate with clients regularly In addition to this, they make a consci-entious attempt to update their Twitter account regularly. This is something which many firms overlook; especially if they only publish corporate materials once every few days. !Instead, it’s vital that legal firms distin-guish their digital brand from their com-petitors through frequent tweeting. This helps firms to reinforce their online presence and develop client relation-ships in the process. !How can Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. improve?




!Open the channels of communication with prospects Overall, Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. has a very good Twitter account but they fail to instigate dialogues with their followers. Their tweets are generally of a high quality - and yet there is very lit-tle evidence of the firm speaking direct-ly with online users. This is potentially problematic because they are not max-imising the opportunities of social me-dia. !If a legal firm wants to increase their brand awareness and improve on their client relationships, then it’s important to make a systematic effort to speak with followers. Sending reports and newsletters directly to prospects will in-crease your chances of it being read and shared. !It’s much easier to sign on new clients if you’ve already established a long-term relationship via Twitter. !Improve brand awareness For an established London legal firm, Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. don’t have as many Twitter followers as you might expect. This could be due to a va-riety of reasons, but it’s apparent that the firm need to do more to increase their brand awareness in the digital sphere. !Overall, however, Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. have a very good pres-ence on Twitter and have established for themselves an effective social media

strategy. They are consistent, in terms of quality and quantity of output, and have a strong following (even if there is room for improvement).




Eversheds @Eversheds !Eversheds are one of largest legal firms in London - both in terms of size and annual profits. They have a plethora of offices across the world, like many of the firms in this report, but Eversheds are truly diverse. You can find their of-fices everywhere from Germany, to Tunisia, and even Iraq. !As a reflection of this diversity, Ever-sheds don’t have one area of expertise and instead cover a breadth of practice areas, including: !• Corporate finance • Employment • Government • Litigation !Given the scale of Eversheds, it seems logical that the firm have a substantial following on Twitter:

What do Eversheds do well? !With nearly 14,000 followers at this cur-rent point in time, Eversheds have one of the largest followings of any legal firm in this report. However, it should be noted that over 50% of their followers are either fake or inactive:

!!!This is a common problem in any large Twitter account, but it means that Ever-shed’s following should be considered to be roughly 7,ooo. !Nevertheless, this is still very impres-sive and is a testament to Eversheds’ sta-tus as thought leader in their sector. There are a variety of reasons why the firm has enjoyed so much success up until this point in time. !Variety of quality content Eversheds have realised that their ser-vices are applicable to a wide range of industries, so their Twitter account and its content reflects this diversity too:

Eversheds are very good at sending out content which has mass appeal and can be used by a wide range of online users, even if they don’t work within the legal sector. This is a huge advantage for Eversheds and goes some way in ex-plaining why the firm have been so suc-cessful on Twitter. !In addition to this, the content itself originates from the firm’s press office




and is widely popular due its high quali-ty. Given how regularly this content is distributed, Eversheds has managed to establish itself as a consistent provider of useful and engaging content. !Frequent distribution Eversheds are also very good at updat-ing their Twitter account regularly and providing their followers with the most current news available. The account is used primarily to promote corporate ma-terials, but the tweets themselves are very diverse and make this fact less ap-parent. !Regardless of the legal firm, in business, it’s vital to use Twitter in a frequent and consistent manner. This is how you build meaningful customer relationships and increase brand awareness. !Event promotion In addition to these points, Eversheds is very good at utilising their social media account to effectively advertise their corporate events. Their Twitter page is filled with useful information about up-coming events and other interesting oc-casions:

This type of social content is helpful, engaging, and very informative for Eversheds’ Twitter followers. It also helps to break-up the more general tweets which promote corporate materi-als.

!How can this be replicated? !Devote quality time to updating Twitter Eversheds are proficient at tweeting to their followers on a consistent basis, both in terms of frequency and quality. This is something that many legal firms fail to do; meaning that they aren’t max-imising the opportunities of social me-dia to its fullest potential. !For those firms who want to update their Twitter more regularly, then it’s impor-tant to establish your social media pres-ence through informative and entertain-ing tweeting. This is how you help to build up meaningful relationships with clients. !Nurture universal appeal in social con-tent Although there are potential downsides to Eversheds only having one Twitter account, they have managed to over-come this problem in a very effective way. Their social media content isn’t dedicated to one particular topic or tar-geted at an individual sector. Instead, the account has universal appeal through sharing a variety of different interesting articles. !How can Eversheds improve? !Communicate more with clients Eversheds could improve upon their Twitter presence by making a real effort to engage directly with users. Although their social content is always well-re-




ceived, the firm fails to communicate with their followers on a regular basis. This is unfortunate because Eversheds are potentially failing to maximise the business potential of Twitter. !To combat this problem, Eversheds could consider sending their publica-tions directly to their followers who need it the most. This would increase their chances of generating leads and help them to reinforce their brand awareness across a wider platform. !Create a separate account for different countries As a global brand which spans multiple continents, it’s surprising that Eversheds don’t have more than one Twitter ac-count. At this current point in time, their account is designed to appeal to a mass group of individuals across the world from multiple sectors. This is somewhat problematic because not all of their so-cial content can be universally relevant. !If Eversheds want to change this, they might want to create separate accounts which target different audiences in a more direct way. For example, Ever-sheds have three offices in China alone. They also have multiple offices in the Middle East. If they want to appeal to foreign prospects more directly, then it would be useful to create Twitter ac-counts which segment and targeted these individuals in an efficient manner. !!!

Devote time to students Many of the firms in this report have in-dividual accounts dedicated specifically to graduates and cultivating potential recruitment opportunities for the future. Although Eversheds is a popular choice for prospective employees, the firm doesn’t have a Twitter account created for this purpose. This is an unfortunate omission because it means that gradu-ates might be dissuade from contacting Eversheds for this very reason. !Their main competitors have graduate accounts, so it makes sense that Ever-sheds should do.




Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom @SkaddenArps !Skadden Arps are a London-based legal firm who have gone from strength to strength in recent years. They have 23 offices across the globe, including in every major financial centre, and they are continually rated highly in terms of professional excellence. !In addition to this, the firm also have a bold approach to social media as part of their wider business strategy. !The Skadden Arps Twitter account is undoubtedly successful; for a company that does not follow a single user, they have amassed over 6000 followers at this current point in time.

Overall, this a testament to the firm’s status as a respected leader in their field. !What do Skadden Arps do well? !

Consistency One of the reasons for Skadden Arps’ success is that they are consistent in de-livering quality tweets to their followers. On the pragmatic level, all of their so-cial content serves a very practical pur-pose: to share corporate materials with online users. As a result, the Skadden Arps Twitter account is very useful em-ployees and investors in the legal indus-try. !Universal content Given that Skadden Arps are a global legal brand, they have used their Twitter account to communicate a variety of topics which are relevant around the world. Although there are potential downsides to this method, as this report will soon explore, this also gives Skad-den Arps a significant advantage. !

�� !Arguably, one of the reasons for their success is that their content has such universal appeal. It doesn’t matter what sector you work within, or where you’re based, this Twitter account is very useful for gaining a clear understanding of the legal climate on an international level. !




Nevertheless, it should be noted that having this level of general appeal can also be problematic too. By attempting to appeal to everyone, it’s possible that a firm won’t create any meaningful rela-tionships in the process. This might partly explain, therefore, why the firm never engages in active dialogue with other Twitter users. !How can this be replicated? !The numbers speak for themselves - the Skadden Arps Twitter account is hugely popular across the world. If other firms wish to emulate this success, then there are certain lessons they can take from the Skadden Arps example. !Always promote your publications on Twitter The bread and butter of any good corpo-rate Twitter account is using it to pro-mote corporate material. This is some-thing that Skadden Arps excel in doing; in fact, they are able to update their so-cial content once every few days to achieve this task. !If your firm is looking to appeal directly to others in the legal industry, then ad-vertising your publications on Twitter can both convenient and very easy to do. It doesn’t require much energy and your content can reach a huge audience num-ber within the click of a button. !Know your audience It’s difficult to say whether a generalised Twitter account, which has mass appeal,

is a good example of a business ‘know-ing’ what their audiences want. Howev-er, this system obviously works for Skadden Arps who have amassed a sig-nificant following on Twitter. Although there is definite merit in seg-menting your audience and targeting them individually, it would seem that the opposite approach can also work. Creating a Twitter account which has popular appeal achieves exactly what it sets out to do: accrue a large following over a range of customer types. !How can Skadden Arps improve? !Tweet more regularly Generally, the Skadden Arps Twitter ac-count will only tweet when they have a new publication to promote. This means that their followers can expect to hear from the firm once every few days. !To create a more substantial and loyal following on Twitter, then it would be beneficial for Skadden Arps to commu-nicate with their followers more regular-ly. This means taking the time to com-municate with clients and prospects when not self-promoting. !Overall, this may help the legal firm to increase their following further and im-prove their brand awareness. !Communicate with others The Skadden Arps Twitter account is only being used to inform followers about publications and news events sur-rounding the firm. The account does not




follow any other users and there is no communication whatsoever between the firm and its clients. !This is a significant problem. One of the main reasons that companies turn to so-cial media is to improve their business relationships. Twitter provides legal firms with the opportunity to share con-tent directly with individuals who are invested in the brand. Over long periods of time, this helps to generate leads and increase brand awareness over a large social platform. !However, this is an opportunity that Skadden Arps is not currently maximis-ing to its fullest potential. At this current point in time, their Twitter account is more like a bulletin board, rather than a social media platform. !If the firm wants to improve upon this problem, then they should consider making a systematic effort to develop meaningful business relationships over Twitter. !Mix things up Skadden Arps’ Twitter account could be improved by being less conservative in its demeanour. The account is currently being used as a promotional tool to ad-vertise the company’s corporate publica-tions. This is incredibly for useful for Skadden Arps’ clients and prospects, but the overall account lacks any overt sense of personality. !

The content itself is of incredibly high quality, however, the tweets are other-wise unengaging and not always infor-mative enough. !Here is a good example of this problem:

The tweet isn’t descriptive enough to catch the reader’s attention. There is no indication about what the report will en-tail or who it was written by. For this reason, the firm could benefit from en-suring that all of their social content is consistent in quality and its usefulness to the reader. !Rather than just tweeting about their publications, Skadden Arps should con-sider communicating about a variety of different (related) topics and sharing useful content from other sources. !It’s much easier for prospects to recog-nise a client’s prestige if they can imag-ine the brand within a wider business context. At this current point in time, the Skadden Arps is entirely cut off from communication with other thought lead-ers.




Simmons and Sim-mons @SimmonsLLP !Simmons and Simmons are a very pres-tigious and established London-based legal firm. They employ over 1,500 in-dividuals across the world and have es-tablished 22 different offices on multiple continents. !The firm has a diverse range of expertise and is widely regarded as excelling in challenging projects, including in sec-tors such as dispute resolution, finance, and corporate matters. !What do Simmons and Simmons do well? !Simmons and Simmons are a prestigious legal firm, but they don’t have the sub-stantial Twitter following that you might expect. This is somewhat surprising be-cause overall their account is very en-gaging and useful for those in the legal sector. !Personalised approach Simmons and Simmons are very good at utilising social media to encourage users to think of their firm in a more friendly and approachable way:

�� This is a refreshing change from many legal firm Twitter accounts which can often be overly conservative and less communicative. However, Simmons and Simmons have a much friendlier tone in their social content and seem to take an active interest in communicating with others. They also include plenty of im-ages in their content, meaning that their tweets are very engaging and sharable: !

�� !Sharing quality content In addition to this, Simmons and Sim-mons take an active interest in sharing useful content from other Twitter ac-counts. One of the problems with sever-al accounts in this report is that legal firms will often not take the time to speak with others. However, Simmons and Simmons are very good at distribut-ing content from other reputable sources:




�� By taking the time to show an active in-terest of other user’s accounts, Simmons and Simmons help to demonstrate that they have a wide knowledge of the legal sector around them. This is incredibly important because it also reinforces the firm’s status as a thought-leader in the industry. !Engaging content Overall, the Simmons and Simmons Twitter account is very good at includ-ing plenty of images and visuals in their content. This might not seem particular-ly useful, but many legal firms fail to make their social content visually ap-pealing. !The Simmons and Simmons Twitter ac-count gives their followers a much more tangible understanding of their corporate culture. They use plenty of images and actually promote their employees on so-cial media:

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Altogether, these efforts help to give the firm a unique brand identity which can translate into the wider digital marketing strategy. Certainly Simmons and Sim-mons have one of the most memorable Twitter accounts of the firms in this re-port. !How can this be replicated? !Develop client relationships through positive communication If other firms wish to replicate this suc-cess, then it’s important to use social media in a visually engaging and inter-active way. Simmons and Simmons have made a consistent effort to distin-guish their social media content from the other conservative social content which is available on Twitter. This helps to reinforce the brand’s overall aware-ness and potentially generate long-term interest in the firm. !Using emotive language and visuals go a long way in achieving this. However, the most important part in achieving this is taking the time to produce great social content on a regular basis. !By doing this, a firm will potentially improve upon their client relationships and develop long-term business rela-tionships. This process also goes a sig-nificant way in generating leads too. !Take an interest in other Twitter ac-counts Simmons and Simmons excel at getting involved in the latest trends and topics




which are affecting their industry. They will frequently share interesting articles and news updates with their followers; meaning that they offer something gen-uinely valuable to their clients and prospects. !This is something that many legal firms could learn from. It’s an important way of proving to your followers that you have a good general understanding of the industry around you. These types of efforts will also help to potentially in-crease a firm’s status as a thought-leader. !How can Simmons and Simmons im-prove? !Although Simmons and Simmons have a good Twitter account, they are not cur-rently being followed as much as you would expect. !This could be for a variety of reasons, but most likely they have no succeeded in raising awareness about their brand on a digital platform. There are several ways of achieving this: !tweet consistently The quality of Simmons and Simmons’ tweets are very good, however, they simply don’t do this frequently enough. Their account is updated roughly once every few days - meaning that they are failing to maximise the potential of us-ing social media. !

If businesses want online users to re-member their brand, then it’s important to raise your public profile on a frequent level. !tweeting regularly is a good way of tackling the common problem of big businesses not having enough followers on Twitter. Rather than buying fake ac-counts, which is expensive and superfi-cial, it would be better to take your time and build up meaningful interactions through frequent tweeting. This is cer-tainly a long-term task, but it’s more likely to pay off than only updating your account sporadically. !Send content directly to prospects In order to raise their brand awareness, Simmons and Simmons would benefit from sending their publications directly to the prospects they wish to target. This would allow them to start a dialogue with the individuals that matter most to them. Furthermore, it would potentially increase the chances are their content being shared across a wider platform than before. !Communicate more with other online users While Simmons and Simmons have en-gaging social content, their tweets don’t always attract as much attention as they deserve. This could be partly due to the fact that Simmons and Simmons don’t communicate directly with online users. Overall, their conversations with poten-tial clients via Twitter are few and far in between.




Bird and Bird @twobirds !Bird and Bird are a truly diverse and global brand, with 26 offices based across the world and a wide range of le-gal expertise. Their projects in the past have involved working within a plethora of sectors, including in banking and fi-nance, media, and even the automotive industry. !In terms of social media, Bird and Bird have an established presence on Twitter and have amassed a strong following:

What do Bird and Bird do well? !Frequent updates One of the reasons that Bird and Bird are so successful on Twitter is because they’re good at updating their account regularly. In fact, they will often send out new tweets once every few hours. This takes up a lot of time and energy, but the firm are definitely seeing the re-wards. !It’s vital for firms who want to develop their clients relationships and lead gen-eration to tweet regularly. Regular social updates help to increase brand aware-ness; something which is vital for any

firm who wants social media to work for them. !In this respect, Bird and Bird are paving the way for other legal firms to follow suit. !International appeal Bird and Bird have offices across the globe and they use the same Twitter which actively reflects this diversity. For example, the firm will commonly tweet out updates in either Italian or Spanish:

This is very unusual for a legal firm, es-pecially considering that separate ac-counts can be created to target foreign audiences directly. However, this method obviously works for Bird and Bird. It means that their Twitter account has mass appeal and can used by a wide range of audiences from across the world. !In doing so, Bird and Bird help to en-sure that their corporate material is shared over a large social platform. This also goes some way in increasing their brand awareness throughout a variety of countries. !Engaging content




Overall, Bird and Bird are consistently good at producing tweets which are in-formative and engaging. The language they use on Twitter is intended to be very personable: !This type of social content is a welcome

change from many other legal firms and their use of Twitter. Bird and Bird don’t possess the overly-conservative and de-spondent tone of voice that many other businesses do. This is one of the reasons for their success on Twitter. !How can this be replicated? !If other legal firms which to emulate this type of success, then there are several useful tips they should consider. !Communicate with international users Bird and Bird are one of the few firms in this report which tweet in languages other than English. This helps to ensure that the brand has mass appeal over a much wider audience than just those in the UK and US. !There are potential downsides to this approach, as this report will examine, but Bird and Bird have fully taken ad-vantage of their global appeal on Twit-ter. !

As many firms continue to open more offices abroad, they may wish to consid-er creating different accounts which ap-peal to their most prestigious foreign markets. !Take the time to speak to prospects Bird and Bird are well versed in using social media on a frequent basis. This is something which is incredibly important and helps to establish a business on a global network. !Overall, Bird and Bird are very consis-tent in updating their account regularly. There is still room for improvement but this is something that nearly all the firms in this report need to replicate across the board. !How can Bird and Bird improve? !Create different accounts for different offices It’s difficult to measure the success of Bird and Bird’s attempt to appeal to in-ternational clients on one main Twitter account. However, they may wish to consider creating separate accounts if they want to ensure that all their content is readable. !Although the majority of their Italian and Spanish clients will be able to speak English, its less likely that firm’s British counterparts will be as well-versed. As a consequence of this, there is a good chance that much of the social content written in Italian and Spanish won’t be legible by all their followers.




!To combat this problem, it would be a good idea for Bird and Bird to create separate accounts for some of their in-ternational offices. This would allow the firm to target these audiences more ef-fectively and ensure that all content can be understood throughout the corpora-tion. !Increase their brand awareness Although Bird and Bird have a solid Twitter following, they don’t have the same volume of numbers as their com-petitors. This could be due to a variety of reasons, but the firm could benefit from sending their content regularly di-rectly to prospects. Overall, this type of marketing strategy could potentially in-crease their publication shares and make the brand more widely known across Twitter.




Latham and Watkins @lathamwatkins !Latham and Watkins are undoubtedly one of the largest legal firms in the world. They have over 2,000 lawyers in their employment and have a wide range of offices, including in New York and San Francisco. !For this reasons, the legal firm have amassed a significant following on Twit-ter and continue to be major thought-leaders in their industry. !What do Latham and Watkins do well? !News bulletin-style updates Latham and Watkins are very good at frequently tweeting useful and informa-tive updates for their followers. This type of social content can be charac-terised as very much like a news bul-letin:

In this sense, their tweets are always useful and have mass appeal; not just for those in the legal sector. Like many le-gal firms in this report, Latham and Watkins use Twitter primarily as a vehi-cle to promote their own corporate ma-terial. This means that the firm is very good at consistently producing high quality content on a daily basis. !Frequent updates One of the other reasons for Latham and Watkins’ success is that they’re good at updating their Twitter page on a regular basis. At the very least, the firm will usually tweet out new social content at least once a day. This means that their followers can rely on and trust the firm to produce quality content regardless. !As a result of this effort, the firm are able to develop a long-term following which helps to build on their current sta-tus as a thought-leader. !When firms fails to do this,they are less likely to develop a relationship with prospects and encourage them to invest in their product. !International appeal In addition to these points, Latham and Watkins occasionally tweet updates which are intended to appeal directly to foreign markets:




Although this doesn’t happen too often, it demonstrates how popular and widely regarded Latham and Watkins are across the globe. By tweeting in different lan-guages, it also helps the firm to have in-ternational appeal and help them to reach a much greater audience. !It’s much easier to build on international business relationships when firms take the time to understand foreign cultures. !How can this be replicated? !Update Twitter regularly If other firms wish to replicate this suc-cess, then they should consider setting a timetable in place so that they can up-date their social media accounts on a regular basis. This is vital for develop-ing good prospect relationships and en-suring that brand awareness is max-imised. !Appeal to a mass market Taking the time to communicate with non-English speaking clients in their na-tive language demonstrates commitment on behalf of the firm. Many legal firms in this report have offices across the world but only communicate directly with those who speak English. This is very unfortunate and potentially limits the outreach of their publications. !!How can Latham and Watkins im-prove? !Share other publications

Given that Latham and Watkins use their account primarily to promote their own publications, they don’t spend a lot of time sharing interesting content from other sources. This is unfortunate be-cause there are a variety of advantages for legal firms who do this. !Sharing great content from prestigious publications help to solidify a firm’s sta-tus as a thought leader in their industry. It demonstrates that the business have a good knowledge of the events which are currently effecting the legal sector. !Communicate with individuals If one looks through Latham and Watkins’ Twitter account, it quickly be-comes evident that the firm are good at sharing quality content. However, they receive very little back in terms of re-sponse. Their content is useful but it doesn’t entice clients or encourage them to start a dialogue with the firm. This is a common problem for many legal firms and Latham and Watkins are no differ-ent. !To overcome this issue, it would be a good idea for Latham and Watkins to create social content which communi-cates directly with users. This would in-volve using more emotive language and asking questions. These efforts could help the firm develop meaningful rela-tionships with their clients and nurture them for longer periods of time. !!!




Give a platform to students It’s now common policy for legal firms to develop close working relationships with many of the most prestigious uni-versities throughout the UK. This is ex-tremely profitable, for a variety of rea-sons, but it cannot be achieved fully without a comprehensive social media campaign. !However, this is something that Latham and Watkins have not yet implemented. Twitter is a great tool for students to contact prospective employers and learn more about a firm.




Berwin Leighton Paisner @BLPLaw !Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) can be described as a full service legal firm who have established for themselves a prestigious reputation across several continents. With 11 offices in total, they provide a wide range of services for their clients, including in finance, intel-lectual property, and real estate. !Overall, BLP are continually ranked amongst the top 20 legal firms based in the UK. They hire over 850 employees across the globe and have offices in Eu-rope, Asia, and the Middle East.

What do Berwin Leighton Paisner do well? !Engaging content BLP are very good at making their legal reports more accessible to the average user through engaging social content. Here is an example: !

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The tweet is useful, informative, and is much more memorable than an ordinary update which merely promotes a publi-cation. Overall, BLP are very good at producing social content which helps to engage with users from a wide profes-sional background. !Sharing great content from quality pub-lications In addition to this, BLP make it com-mon practice to share useful publica-tions from esteemed Twitter accounts. This helps to provide BLP’s followers with plenty of variety and helps to es-tablish the firm as a respected thought-leader in their industry. !

�� !For example, the BLP Twitter account frequently shares tweets from Legal Week; helping to keep their followers up to date with the latest news affecting the industry. This a very useful tactic in helping to raise brand awareness across a large audience platform. !How can this be replicated? !Send out useful content If users want to develop a substantial Twitter following and increase their dia-logue with prospects, then it would be beneficial to give audiences content that is actually helpful to them. Sharing in-teresting articles, with a personal spin, is much more useful than simply tweeting




news updates. This is something that BLP have proven themselves very good at doing. Be friendly on Twitter BLP have succeeded in making their so-cial content much more accessible by using personable language on Twitter. Many legal firms struggle to strike the balance between formality and friendli-ness on Twitter; meaning that their Twit-ter accounts can feel too conservative. This is something that BLP definitely don’t do and they are good at creating engaging content that people actually want to read. !tweet regularly One of the most significant reasons for BLP’s success is that they promote qual-ity content on a frequent basis. Rather than updating their Twitter feed once a day, or less, they make a consistent ef-fort to provide their followers with use-ful information. This is an important lesson for any firm who wants to im-prove their social media status !How can Berwin Leighton Paisner improve? !Communicate more with prospects It’s very important that legal firms take the time to communicate directly with their potential clients. BLP share lots of interesting content, but they hardly ever prompt dialogues between the firm and its business associates. !This is potentially problematic. One of the main reasons that companies turn to

social media is to improve their business relationships. Twitter provides legal firms with the opportunity to share con-tent directly with individuals who are invested in the brand. Over long periods of time, this helps to generate leads and increase brand awareness. !Use more images tweeting out visuals is important for users who want to give themselves an edge. By doing so, it makes it much eas-ier for legal firms to create more eye-catching and memorable content. Over-all, BLP need to use more visuals to help to distinguish their brand from their competitors.




Executive Summary !The legal firm industry is one of the most competitive marketplaces in the UK. Britain is paving the way for performance excellence, with a few of the law firms in this report featuring among some of the best social accounts globally. !Nearly every single one of these businesses has achieved a following of at least one thousand followers on Twitter. In addition to this, each of these accounts is being used as a promotional vehicle for corporate publications. !Overall, there is a tremendous amount of diversity in these Twitter accounts. !Nevertheless, there is still significant room for improvement. There are no obvious blunders which stand out, but there are consistent mistakes being made across the board. Some of these issues include a lack of: !• Brand awareness • Client dialogues • Consistent tweeting • Student-focussed accounts • Engaging content • Friendly communication !Nearly all of the firms in this report could benefit from improving these issues at one point or another. !Thank you for reading my report. If you would like to discuss anything within, please call myself or James Welch on 0844 871 7291.



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Prominent London Legal Firms and Their Twitter Accounts

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